UniCal Student Wins Nigeria Student Venture Prize

A Radiography student of the University of Calabar, Janet Odey, has defeated 19 other contestants to win the 2021 Nigeria Student Venture Prize.

Contestants were drawn from tertiary institutions across the country, according to the organisers, EduGist, adding that 10,000 applications were received out of which 30 contestants were selected and further reduced to the 20 contestants who took part in the grand finale.

The 23-year old Odey won the grand prize of N1.5m in addition to an opportunity to participate in the University Startup World Cup in Denmark in 2022 with the possibility of winning the $15,000 prize money.

During the competition held at Hotel in Calabar on Saturday and sponsored by Africa Plus Partners and V-Bank with support from the University of Sussex, AfriInvest and Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, Odey and others pitched their business startups.

Odey told the judges that her business idea called Victual Mart is a digital agricultural market for food fit for human consumption.

“What we do is to connect small holders farmers to the ready market, in order to sell their food at a subsidised rate and make quick returns,” Odey said.

She also spoke about her victory, saying “I feel really excited to be announced as the winner of this competition. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it. When I came in here, the business class we had really helped me put my pitch tech to what it is, and am really grateful.”

Also, the first runner-up, Iheanacho Chiegozie from Babcock University, who won N1 million for his business startup, LockBook, said it is a platform for copyright protection for e-text book publishing and retail. 

“I am really  excited. I unveiled LockBook application here and it has been an exciting time. My main inspiration was the COVID-19 pandemic that made us sit at home and detached us from our conventional learning and reading environments. That is  why I came up with this ICT innovation called LockBook to bridge that academic gap. We can now read and learn from our homes with ease through LockBook. Coming second in the NSVP 2021 is yet the greatest achievement of my life,” he said.

In his remarks Daniel Balmun, from the National Open University Of Nigeria, Jos campus, who emerged third, won N500,000 after pitching his startup, BorrowLite.

He said it “is an application that allows electricity prepaid metre users in Nigeria, to  borrow electricity tokens and pay back later.”

Comfort Omiyale from Tai Solarin University of Education Ogun State, won N1 million for her startup, P-Pal in the Social Impact category.

She described her startup as “a social enterprise that provides Nigeria’s first people friendly, affordable, biodegradable and plastic free sanitary pad. I thank EduGist for this opportunity. They have done a great job.”

The organisers also gave the other contestants N50,000 consolation prizes each.

Speaking after the event the Chief Executive Officer of EduGist, Elvis Boniface, said, “EduGist is  an education consultancy firm. We started the Nigeria Students Ventures Prize in 2019. Things can be done differently in this country.”The universities graduate thousands every year, so we need people to become creative and innovative. That is why we have this project running.

“We are giving students across the country the opportunity to showcase creativity, innovation and explore ideas. This is the second edition and its been amazing. Their prizes put together is just N3m and we are calling for more companies to come and join hands so we can do this in a bigger way. We hope to get more partnership from the National Universities Commission and the Ministry of Education.”